It should have been a dream trip: families, honeymooners, and couples enjoying a cruise on the Costa Concordia, but then a tragedy unfolded. Here, we tell the stories of those caught up in the worst cruise disaster in living memory.

1 FERNANDO TOFANELLI: Passenger – survivor

The second sitting of dinner was taking place in the Milano restaurant in the stern of the ship as the ship crashed into rocks.

As many as half of the 11 bodies discovered by divers were in the vicinity of the two-storey restaurant on Decks 3 and 4, which could seat up to 775 people.

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Mr Tofanelli was with family and friends when they heard a loud bang. He said: “At first I thought it was something mechanical with the engine, but after a few seconds we felt the ship starting to lean over from one side to the other. Plates and tables were flying all over the place and people were falling over as the tilting got worse. People were shouting and screaming and it was absolute chaos.

“The crew left it until the very last moment to begin boarding people onto lifeboats. As a result, precious time was lost, and in the panic people began jumping into the water. The longer they left it to launch the lifeboats, the worse the ship was lifting in the water. People seemed to be trapped in the decks on the side of the ship that was under water, and where I was standing we could see the water getting higher and higher.

“While we were still in the dining room, the crew basically disappeared, and it was left to a few Thai waiters who didn’t speak English to try to keep us calm.

“After about an hour the ship finally sounded several blasts on the horn, and that was the signal to go to the lifeboats, but by now people were pushing each other to get out of the way, and some were leaping over the side into the sea. They didn’t have enough lifeboats for all the passengers because some appeared to be underwater from the ship leaning over.

“Fortunately I was above the water line, but I could see the waters climbing higher and higher towards us. Some of the crew didn’t seem to even know how to release the lifeboats or even start the lifeboat engines once they were down on the water. The crewman in charge of our lifeboat was absolutely ashen-faced, he just didn’t know what to do.”

Mr Tofanelli, a 38-year-old Italian studying English in London who was with his family on holiday, said it took two hours for the lifeboats to dock at the island of Giglio, where they found shelter inside the local church.

2 JOHN AND MANDY RODFORD: Passengers – survivors

The British holidaymakers were forced to slide the width of the tilted decks in order to reach working lifeboats.

The couple, who were celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary, were eating in Milano when the ordeal began. Mr Rodford, 46, a tiler and plasterer from Rochester in Kent, said: “It was our first cruise. I booked it as a surprise. We were at dinner when the ship seemed to hit something and started swaying from side to side. Suddenly the lights went out as if the generator had packed in, and from then on it was bedlam.

“After a long wait – around 10.15pm – we were led out to the deck by some waiters and taken to lifeboat number 12, but it wouldn’t lower down to the water because the lean on the ship was so bad.

“We had to climb out of that one and climb back up onto the deck and slide down its width towards the side of the ship that was leaning closest to the water. From there we managed to jump onto the bottom of an upturned lifeboat and then onto another lifeboat that was still upright. There were about 30 of us that got into it.” It was 12.30am when they reached land.

Mrs Rodford, 45 said: “I really thought my time was up and I would never see my four children and three grandchildren again. We are both so lucky to be alive.”

3 DAYANA AND WILLIAM ARLOTTI: Passengers – missing

Five year-old Dayana Arlotti and her father William are still among the missing passengers. The pair had gone on a cruise with Mr Arlotti’s partner Michela Maroncelli to celebrate Dayana's fifth birthday.

Mr Arlotti, 34, and his daughter, from the Italian seaside resort of Rimini, became separated from Ms Maroncelli, 32, in the rush to board lifeboats. Miss Maroncelli said: “I climbed into a lifeboat, but in the chaos I lost contact with William. I heard someone screaming, “Throw him a rope” and I was petrified that they were talking about him. I didn’t see William or Dayana again.”

Dayana’s mother, Susy Albertini, 28 tried calling her ex-husband’s mobile phone as soon as she heard about the sinking, but without any success.

Mrs Albertini, who has been desperately calling police, coastguards and the cruise company for information, said: “I last heard from her on Thursday. No one can tell me anything and what little I know is from the newspapers. Sometimes they ask absurd questions, like if my daughter knows how to swim. Do they understand she is five years old? What kind of question is that?”

4 MARIA D’INTRONO: Passenger – missing

Honeymooners Maria D’Introno, 30, Vincenzo Rosselli, 40, were on board to celebrate their recent wedding, along with the golden wedding anniversary of Mr Rosselli’s parents, Martire, 74, and Lucia, 72. As the ship took on more water, Mr Rosselli and the rest of his family donned life jackets and leapt into the water. But Mrs D’Introno, who could not swim, disappeared from sight and is feared to have drowned.

Mr Rosselli, from Biella near Turin, said: “I saw my wife jump into the water with her lifejacket on, but I haven’t heard from her since. I’m begging the rescuers to find her. The main thing on my mind was my 74-year-old father who has a problem with his hip. We all had lifejackets, but Maria couldn’t swim and was scared of the water.”

5 FRANCIS SERVEL: Passenger – confirmed dead

The Servels – Francis and his wife Nicole – were on the boat as a present from their children for Mrs Servel’s 60th birthday. Mr Servel, 71, insisted that his wife take his lifejacket before they leapt into the sea, only for him to disappear beneath the waves.

“For an hour we had waited in line to get into a lifeboat – my husband let everyone else go first,” said Mrs Servel, from Toulouse, south-west France.

“I can’t swim so he gave me his lifejacket. He shouted, “Jump, jump, jump!”. I froze and couldn’t jump, but he jumped off the ship and shouted upwards, “Come on, don’t worry”. I jumped off and the last thing I heard him say was that I would be fine. I never saw him again.’

Mrs Servel managed to swim ashore while her husband was swept under water and drowned. She said: “I thought of my children and grandchildren. The thought of them kept me afloat, kept me living. I don’t know how I did it.

“I swam for several minutes and then I found myself on a rock. Villagers came to pick us up. They led us to a church. I was very cold, frozen. In the sacristy we found a cassock. I took it. It warmed me up.”

Mrs Servel said: “I am angry because there was no boat for us and there was no one to save my husband. I owe my life to him – it’s obvious he saved me.”

6 THOMAS ALBERTO COSTILLA MENDOZA: Crew – confirmed dead

Mr Costilla Mendoza, 50, from Trujillo, Peru, is understood to have died attempting to swim away from the vessel. His brother Jorge Costilla Mendoza, said: “Some accounts we have received say my brother threw himself off the ship and was hit in the fall, and drowned. Tomas knew how to swim very well, but I think he couldn’t withstand the cold Mediterranean temperatures.” He was one of 44 Peruvian crew paid £840 per month, five times the Peruvian minimum wage.

7 MANRICO GIAMPETRONI: Chief Purser – survivor

Following the collision, Mr Giampetroni helped passengers into lifeboats before leaving to search the deck below for remaining passengers.

After more than two hours Mr Giampietroni, 57, called his wife Laura to say he would be all right and at 2am on Saturday spoke to a friend, then disappeared. He had fallen through a hole as he tried to reach the bridge, tumbling 13 feet into the flooded Samsara restaurant, on the third deck, where the waters were rising all the time. He climbed on a table and, in the dark, waited for help.

He said: “I felt a great pain in my leg. I was in the pitch black. I was terrified to be alone in the darkness, although I never lost hope.”

Rescuers eventually reached Mr Giampietroni at around noon on Sunday, alerted by his cries for help and he was winched to safety by helicopter.

8 HAN GI-DECK AND JEONG HYE-JIN: Passengers – survivors

The South Korean newlyweds spent 30 hours in their cabin, number 8303 on Deck 8, waiting to be rescued. They were found alive on Sunday morning, having subsisted on biscuits and a meagre supply of water. Han Gi-deck, and his wife Jeong Ye-jin, both 29 and teachers, had eaten at the first dinner sitting then fallen asleep in their cabin when the ship hit the rocks. Incredibly they slept though the impact.

“It was only after we woke up that we realised the ship was tilting,” said Mr Han. “We went out to the corridor but ended up slipping toward the end of the corridor and were even injured from the steep incline.”

The couple returned to the cabin, dark and partly submerged, taking turns wearing an extra lifejacket to endure the cold. “We encouraged each other, promising to live a good life together if we escape,” Mr Han said. “We could only distinguish night and day through a ray of light coming from a small hole on the wall of the cabin,” said Mrs Jeong.

Rescue workers finally found them early on Sunday morning after hearing their screams, and winched them to safety. Mrs Jeong said it was like "meeting a hero".

9 FABIO COSTA: Ship's Shop Assistant – survivor

Fabio Costa was working in a jewellery and clothing on Deck 5, when the collision occurred, showering him in broken glass.

There was panic, but he reached the fourth deck, where he could see water pouring into the ship’s hull below. Mr Costa, 26, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, said: “Everything just started to fall, all the glasses broke and everybody started to panic and run.

“We could only feel that the boat had hit something, we had no idea how serious it was until we got out and we looked through the window and we saw the water coming in.”

Mr Costa said he and his colleagues tried to keep passengers calm while the lifeboats were launched, but as panic set in some people began to push each other.

“It took them a long time to be able to launch the lifeboats because [the ship] was really tipped to one side,” he said. “People panicking and pushing each other didn’t help at all. So we were all trying to keep people calm but it was just impossible, no one knew what was going on.”

Mr Costa, who returned to Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, said the boat had tilted so much that passengers jumping into the sea faced only a short drop. “Some people pretty much just decided to swim because they were not able to get on the lifeboats.”

10 ANDREA CAROLLO: Third Officer – survivor

Asleep in his cabin at the back of Deck 3 when the Costa Concordia crashed, Andrea Carollo, leapt out of bed and dressed.

By the time he opened his door water was already rushing down the corridor, and when he went to his post in the engine room the engines were beginning to flood.

“Within 15 minutes, the engine room told the bridge that there was nothing to be done,” he said. “The situation was beyond repair.”

He then reported to his muster point, a lifeboat for 35 crew members. “Unlike the captain, we were there until the end. We did all we could to avoid catastrophe,” he said.

Alberto Fiorito, 28, another engineer, said: “We didn’t wait for the captain to give the order to abandon ship. We saw how serious the situation was, and we did it ourselves.”

11 NANCY CACOPARDO: Passenger – survivor

One hundred and fifty Italian hairdressers were on board the Concordia to a take part in a reality television competition. Among them were Miss Cacopardo, 41, who was with her son Francesco, two, having dinner when the ship struck the reef.

Miss Cacopardo, from Messina, said: “Francesco stayed very calm, as if he was trying to understand what was going on, but I thought we were going to die. That it was the end for both of us. They made us wait a long time go towards the lifeboats. When we finally boarded one it would only go down bit by bit and kept banging against the side of the ship because the cables seemed tangled. Even once it was in the water the engines wouldn’t start.

“The crew were all Asian and it was very hard to communicate with them. They were trying to help us and working hard to get us off, but it there was so much confusion. I cant believe this has happened. We were washed out in the Messina floods of 2009 and lost our home.”

12 EDWIN AND LIZ GURD: Passengers – survivors

Elizabeth Gurd, 58, managed to board a lifeboat after the collision with a reef, but it was more than an hour before Mr Gurd, a retired police chief inspector, managed to get on a life raft and make his way to the shore to be reunited with his wife. The couple had been in their cabin, number 1303 on Deck 1, packing because they were to disembark the next day and had been planning to go for a drink in one of the ship’s bars when there was a tremendous jolt and the lights went out.

Mr Gurd, 64, of Ringwood in Hampshire, said: “We were a little bit concerned so we picked up our lifejackets and started to make our way out. I’m very glad that we did not go back in the cabin, despite what crew members were telling us.” The couple went to their muster point in the middle of deck four where people were struggling against the listing ship to lower the lifeboats.

Mr Gurd said: “When the order came to abandon ship they tried to lower the lifeboats but they had some difficulty and some actually fell into the sea. My wife managed to get into a lifeboat after which they said it was full and suggested I tried to find another one.”

Mr Gurd started to make his way to a higher deck. “I was getting a bit disturbed about how a few male passengers were trying to force their way on to the lifeboats. I think one of the lifeboats must have come back because I suddenly got asked to go to a lower deck and get on a life raft there. I had to crawl along the deck and hold on to stop falling.”

13 BRIAN PAGE: Passenger – survivor

As tables overturned and plates and glasses crashed to the floor in the Roma Restaurant, Brian Page, a retired accountant recovering from radio- and chemotherapy treatment for cancer, was struck on the head by a box of candles flying through the air.

It started a night of chaos and terror, culminating in him sliding across the heavily listing deck to reach the safety of a lifeboat.

After the initial collision with reefs, Mr Page and his fellow diners moved to the bar, where they sat for more than an hour.

Mr Page, 63, a divorcee from Southampton, said: “Over the Tannoy there was an announcement not to panic and that everything was under control. We just sat talking quite casually. Then the alarm did go and the announcement came to abandon ship.”

With neither a lifejacket or his medication Mr Page returned to his cabin, number 2381, on Deck 2. “The emergency lights were on, it was very steep, but I was managing to walk reasonably well,” he said. “The cabin was in complete darkness and I was scrambling around trying to get hold of my medicine and my rucksack to put it in and my life jacket.”

Mr Page made his way to a muster station on Deck 3 – close to the funnel on the side which was starting to tip skywards – only to find that all the lifeboats were packed.

The people gathered on deck were told to make their way to the back of the ship to see if there were any lifeboats available. But not only were these full, they were impossible to launch because one side of the Concordia was by now high in the air. Mr Page climbed a deck and made his way towards the back of the ship, passing at least five other muster stations.

He reached the highest point of the liner and was clinging on to the rails to stop himself falling, as it continued to list and the incline got steeper and steeper.

“I was holding on the railings for dear life,” he said.

An announcement instructed people to move to the other side, which was closer to the water and from where lifeboats were still being launched. Mr Page was one of the first to let go and slide across the boat, through Milano restaurant, before crashing into railings. He then managed to squeeze through them, dropping himself four feet into a lifeboat.

“Behind us people were getting pushed and crushed against the railings, there were people with broken fingers,” he said. The lifeboat was released and shortly after Mr Page finally reached the safety of the shore.

14 RUSSEL REBELLO: Waiter – missing

Russel Rebello, 33, rushed to the aid of other passengers and even gave one his own lifejacket, but now the married father of a two-year-old daughter is feared dead.

Mr Rebello, from Mumbai, was thought to be in his cabin on the third deck, just above where the reef smashed through the hull of the vessel. His brother Kevin said: “My brother stayed to help others. It should have been the captain who left the ship last. The fact he left early is something I just cannot get over, I’m very angry.”

Mr Rebello, one of about 200 Indian crew on the ship, began working on the Costa Concordia last October. “The gash in the side of the ship is where my brother’s cabin was located,” said his brother. “Russel was ill with a fever that day, he had been in the ship’s hospital and when he went to rest in his cabin he was woken by smoke and water. He escaped in just a T-shirt and shorts and went to alert a friend.

“The friend gave him trousers and shoes and my brother rushed to help passengers with the evacuation on the fourth floor. He had a lifejacket on at one point but I’ve been told he gave it to a passenger who didn’t have one.

“The ship was still moving, and I think he must have slipped. I think he could have been trapped below or sucked into the vacuum.”

15 SANDOR FEHER: Musician – confirmed dead

Sandor Feher, a Hungarian musician who played in the Bianco Trio on the Concordia, died after apparently delaying his escape to retrieve his violin.

Mr Feher, 38, had been helping children to put on lifejackets before he returned to his cabin to find the instrument, according to Jozsef Balog, a fellow musician on the ship.

He was wearing a lifejacket when he left the deck and was last seen heading from the bows to lifeboat 17 or 19.

Appealing for any sightings of Mr Feher, his family last week posted a picture on Facebook taken inside an unidentified lifeboat, in which they had circled a face that appeared to resemble Mr Feher. It is thought he may have left the lifeboat to rescue his violin.

Last week his body was identified by his mother, who flew to Italy from Hungary. His brother Istvan Feher wrote on Facebook: “I can only say thank you to everyone. He really was a good man ... Last concert does not end.”

16 IAN AND JANICE DONOFF: Passengers – survivors

The honeymoon couple were among hundreds of people who had to clamber along a rope ladder, strapped to the side of the ship, to make their way to a life raft. Their dramatic escape was captured by a photographer in one of the most dramatic images of the night.

Mr Donoff, a retired businessman who had married his wife Janice, a solicitor, 11 days earlier, said: “I was in the theatre where there was a magic show and suddenly the magician seemed to disappear. This wasn’t part of his act, it was because he had seen something at that lower lever which caused him and other people to rush out of the auditorium. The lights started going out, mixing desks, sound systems everything went out.

“The Tannoy announced, 'The captain has reported a generator or fault and would ask you not to panic. Engineers are looking at it now.’ But I thought, 'Why would you get a scraping noise with a generator?’”

Growing increasingly concerned, the couple went to their cabin, number 7248 on Deck 7, and grabbed passports, wallets and lifejackets before going to Muster Station B on the side of the ship tipping into the air, reaching it at 10.15pm.

Mr Donoff, from Edgware, north London, said: “From what I could work out the ship had hit something. The captain was trying to take her closer to the mainland and didn’t want people to board the lifeboats until he’d managed that. As a result many of the lifeboats were rendered useless because the listing of the ship was so severe. They just couldn’t physically be lowered into the water. It was impossible to move ours and all 107 of us climbed out of the lifeboat.”

He said staff, who were cooks and waiters during the day, were trying to calm people down but “they did not know what to do”.

“I thought we would not get out – a marriage should last more than 11 days,” said Mr Donoff. “There was this mad scramble for a ladder: people got crushed pushed and goodness knows what – it was like a free for all.

“Children seemed to be treated with some sort of reverence, so they were pushed up quicker, but apart from that it was hell. Once we got to the top you could see the sea. The local lifeguards had placed a rope ladder along the side and we used our bottoms to go down one end, then turned around and scaled over what was the hull, where they helped you on little boats.

“It was a bit like crawling across an ice rink because it was wet and slippery and cold. Some people were freaking out, others were staying incredibly calm. It was absolutely treacherous and it wasn’t till 4.30am that we reached the water.

“The lifeboat crews took over and they were fantastic. They lifted people onto their boats before transferring them to other lifeboats to the mainland and evacuating them away from the ship. We are very, very lucky to be alive.”

17 PHOEBE JONES: Ship's Dancer – survivor

On stage in the ship’s theatre when disaster struck were the Italian magician and illusionist Maurizio di Martino – known as Mago Martin – and his assistants Phoebe Jones from Surrey and Rosalyn Rincon, from Blackpool.

Miss Jones was about to climb inside a box as part of a magic trick when the ship lurched, sending scenery crashing off the stage.

“Suddenly there was a blackout and everything from the stage crashed to one side,” said the 20 year-old from Shepperton. “The ship went on a huge, huge lean. Some people started to panic, but I was fine. Even though I was so scared I still didn’t really get what was going on.”

It was only when she reached Gigilio in a lifeboat and was transferred to a ferry that the enormity of what she had experienced began to sink in.

“When I got onto the ferry and realised I was actually on a hard surface and safe, that’s when I realised,” she said. “We watched everything from that ferry and that night we just watched the Concordia sink.”

She was met by her parents, Howard and Loraine, at Heathrow Airport last Saturday and posted a message on Facebook to let friends know she was safe.

“So glad to be home,” she wrote. “Thank you all so much for everyone’s love and messages, I will be in touch as soon as I can. My heart goes out to all of Costa Concordia and to those still suffering. And to all the heroes, whose actions made such a difference to the disaster. The wonderful Costa Concordia. An incredible ship, once full of incredible people. My heart goes out to everyone.”

Miss Rincon, 30, who is half-Venezuelan, was inside a long box, shaped like a coffin, when the ship lurched. “I shouted to the magician – get me out get me out and he flipped a catch to release me. We ran to our cabins for our life vests.”

18 MONIQUE MAUREK: Passenger – survivor

In the theatre were Monique Maurek, 41, and her husband Anton. “There was a loud tearing sound and we felt a crunch,” said Mrs Maurek, an undertaker from Rotterdam, Holland.

“At first we thought it was part of the magic show. But then the boat started tilting to one side and woman on a wheelchair came sliding past us at speed and that’s when the panic started. The magician ran off. He just disappeared.

“We didn’t have lifejackets and people were shouting that we should go up to Deck 4 to get some. There were people stuck in the lifts screaming so we climbed up the large staircase. When we got outside – on the side of the ship furthest away from the water – we managed to get some of the last life jackets. There was a panic and my husband pushed me into a lifeboat to make sure I got on. Other people fell on top of me and I was screaming. People were falling out of the lifeboat in front of us down into the water.”

The lifeboat was stuck and it took four crew members 20 minutes to force it down into the sea before the Maureks escaped.

19 ROSE METCALF: Ship's Dancer – survivor

While panic spread around her the 23 year-old gave up her place in a lifeboat.

She had been drinking coffee in the Salon Londres bar at the stern, waiting to have her picture taken with passengers, when it struck the reef. As she was wearing evening dress, Miss Metcalf, from Wimborne, Dorset, decided to return to her cabin, number 3507 on Deck 3, to change into warmer clothes and her lifejacket.

From there she went to her muster point, at the very front of the boat, and took a roll call of passengers as the boat started to list. It was clear that not all the lifeboats would be able to launch, and there would not be enough space for everyone so she stayed on board. Eventually she clambered up to Deck 5, where she managed to wave to attract a rescue helicopter at 2.30am.

Miss Metcalf, from Wimborne in Dorset, said. “We knew there would be too many people for the life rafts. We were literally throwing each other. We were creating human chains to try to pass people over gaps that if they dropped down there was no recovery from. There was panic, people were white – crying and screaming. I decided to wait until the water was high enough so I could jump or swim, but I didn’t want to be inside.

“I was making sure the people on my life raft had their jackets done up. I was trying to keep people talking, was trying to keep the mood calm and keep practical. My heart was racing, but I was calm to everyone else.”

20 CAPTAIN FRANCESCO SCHETTINO: survivor

The key to the night’s tragic events lies in the actions of the captain, now under house arrest facing charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship.

At around 9.05pm he was seen leaving the Concordia Club on Deck 11, in the company of Domnica Cemortan, an off-duty Moldovan member of the crew, and another officer.

A witness said the party had drunk at least a decanter of red wine, raising questions over Capt Schettino’s insistence that he drank no alcohol that night.

Prosecutors have established that the captain was at the controls of the Concordia 37 minutes later, when he steered the huge cruise ship onto rocks off the island of Giglio as he was allegedly trying to perform an "inchino" – or sail-past salute – for a former Costa Cruises captain and for the ship’s chief steward, Antonello Tievoli.

This risky manoeuvre appears to have been established practice for some Costa captains.

Also on the bridge was Miss Cemortan, who investigators now want to interview to shed light on what happened.

By 9.45pm the ship was listing by seven degrees and some passengers, beginning to realise that something was badly wrong, made phone calls to relatives, leading to the coastguard in Livorno being notified that the cruise liner was in trouble.

Mr Schettino only called his employers at 10.05pm – 23 minutes after the collision – reporting a problem with the ship. However when the Livorno harbour master’s office radioed a minute later the ship said it had suffered a “blackout”.

Twenty minutes later Livorno radioed again and Capt Schettino, 52, admitted water was entering the hull – but said there was no emergency. By 10.30pm the ship was listing by 20 degrees and he finally issued a May Day signal, waiting a further 20 minutes – at 10.58 – before ordering the ship to be abandoned.

Capt Schettino should then have waited for the ship’s passengers to be evacuated before leaving himself. However, witnesses saw him wrapped in a blanket getting on a lifeboat just over an hour after ordering the evacuation.

The captain told magistrates that when he did get onto a lifeboat it was only because he had “tripped” and fallen into the rescue craft while trying to help with the evacuation.

At 1.46am he picked up another call from the port authorities and was for a second time angrily ordered to return to his ship by Gregorio De Falco, the Livorno harbour master. However he was later spotted by a police patrol boat heading towards land in a life boat.

At 5am Capt Schettino called his 80-year-old mother Rosa, telling her: “Mamma, there’s been a tragedy. But don’t worry, I tried to save the passengers. I won’t be able to phone you for a while. Just stay calm,”

21 DOMNICA CEMORTAN: The Mystery Blonde – survivor

The crew member who was on leave was allegedly invited onto the bridge as the Concordia sailed perilously close to Giglio, in what was apparently a "salute" to an old friend of the captain’s and a favour to the ship’s chief steward, Antonello Tievoli, whose family home is on the island. It is now alleged she was there because Capt Schettino was trying to impress her.

Miss Cemortan, 25, a dancer and passenger rep on the Concordia, was seen drinking wine and chatting with the captain at around 9pm, 42 minutes before the Concordia ran aground.

Italian judicial authorities now want to interview her as she may be able to shed light on what happened on the bridge when the giant cruise ship collided with a rocky outcrop, ripping a massive gash in its hull.

After staying on the bridge to issue instructions to passengers in Russian – her second language – Miss Cemortan was evacuated by lifeboat.

Before returning to her family home in Chisinau, Moldova, she defended the actions of Capt Schettino, saying he had saved lives by steering the stricken vessel towards Giglio’s tiny harbour and grounding it close to the shore.

“Look at how many people are alive because of him. It’s a tragedy that people are missing, but he saved over 3,000 people on that ship because of his actions,” she said. “He did not abandon ship before everyone else. He would not have done that. He knows what his duty is. He is one of the best captains in the company.”

22 ANTONELLO TIEVOLI: Chief Steward – survivor

Shortly before the ship hit the reefs the captain allegedly called Mr Tievoli to the bridge saying: “Antonello, come see, we are very close to your Giglio.”

Captain Schettino was attempting an "inchino" – a sail-past – in which the huge cruiser would show off its lights and sirens to the island. At 9.08pm, just one hour before the ship ran aground, Mr Tievoli’s sister, Francesca, posted on Facebook: “In a little while the Costa Concordia will sail so close so close ...”

Witnesses claimed Mr Tievoli, standing on the bridge, said to the captain just before the accident happened: “Careful, we are extremely close to the shore.”